About 2 weeks ago, McDonald's Hong Kong re-released the Black and White burgers. I believe these were introduced in 2012 shortly after the originals appeared in China. I was lucky enough to catch the original Chinese release, but I haven't been lucky enough to be in HK when they've run their promo as the seasoned mashed potato seems really interesting, even though everyone I've asked that has tried it has said it was OK at best...

McDonald's Hong Kong Black & White Burgers 2015

Look at all these other interesting sides!

In 2015, McDonald's launched these burgers together with 3 Shaker flavours, and a plethora of sides. The Honey BBQ and Seaweed are extremely common in HK where they pop up a couple times a year, but this time they also quietly released a completely new flavour which I was very excited to try - Salt & Pepper Crab. I had my friend in HK send me up a packet as soon as he could get his hands on some.

Like other Hong Kong promo-shakers, they were packed right here in Singapore (with ingredients from who-knows-where), but HK seems always have twice the number of shakers than they do here. This strangely enough isn't the first "meat" flavoured shaker I've tried, but I do believe it is the first "seafood" based flavour I've had. It was a bit disappointing when I read through the ingredients and I didn't see any crab listed in there, but it did mention in the allergy information that it does contain "crustacean products" I wasn't sure if this was a good, or bad sign...

When I opened up the package I was surprised to find how dark and orange the seasoning was! I had expected it to be a much lighter colour than it was, and I couldn't really figure out where that orange was coming from, or if they purposely dyed it that colour - why? It didn't really have a distinguishable odour, but at least it was fragrant. If you took a random supermarket "5-spice" seasoning it probably could have been interchangeable with this. The first fry I had was heavy on the salt, but I'm not sure if that was because the fries themselves were heavily salted, or if this shaker just made it worse. After another couple fries, I could certainly taste the pepper, although it tasted more like white pepper than the black pepper stated in the ingredient list. What I never could taste was crab. There was definitely another taste in there beside the salt and pepper but it wouldn't be something I could call crab.

If they just called these "Salt and Pepper" Shakers, I would probably complain that this could be a shaker you could make with the packets they already provide at McDonald's but at least it would be true to the name. Since these are called Salt and Pepper Crab Shakers, and they didn't taste like crab in the slightest, they deserve a low score, even if they weren't all that bad tasting. I just wish they had been as exiting as the name...